The Glass Limbo, 62nd Day of Childwiner, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): "Stop the war on the other side of the river!”

Were he alive today, I think the Buddha would be disappointed but not surprised at the latest war going on in Iran. He would have been disappointed but not surprised by any war - now, previously, or in the future. During his own time, there were wars between the feudal states of India, and he lived to see his own tribe, the Shakyas, exterminated by the neighboring kingdom of Magadha. 

To put it simply, the Buddha did not consider man to be an inherently warlike creature. He considered human nature to be naturally kind, generous, and empathic. But greed, hatred, and delusion arise out of ignorance of our natural state, clouding our understanding of our true nature and resulting in conflict and war - war between nation-states, war between men and women, war between man and nature. The solution is neither winner-takes-all nor split-the-spoils in a negotiated treaty, but to awaken to our true generous and peaceful nature.

"Stop the war on the other side of the river" is a very short koan in the Japanese Zen tradition. "The other side of the river" sounds like "the other shore," the allegorical location which one attempts to attain in spiritual practice (before realizing, of course, that we're already there). As an English interpretation of the dhāraṇī at the end of the Heart Sutra says, 

Gone, gone, gone to the other shore

To beyond the other shore,

Having never left.

Taken that way, "stop the war on the other side of the river!” could mean to stop the war over on the unrealized shore of ignorance. It could also mean to stop the struggle to attain the other shore.

I think the meaning is more subtle than that. How can one stop a war "on the other side," be it the other side of a river? Or the other side of the world? Or the other side of one's political or religious opinions? I can't teleport over to Iraq, and even if I could, I don't think popping up and saying "Stop it!" would make any difference.

The way to "stop the war on the other side of the river" is to abandon the idea of "the other side," which is to abandon the idea of a barrier separating the sides. There's a war "on the other side of the river" only because we divide ourselves by the river, or by an ocean, or a continent, or by political beliefs, or by ethnic differences. Separation and division leads to distrust and resentment, which leads to violence and war. 

"The monks of the East and West Halls were arguing about a cat," a different koan begins, and of course they were arguing - they already differentiated themselves as "East Hall" and "West Hall." "Stop the war in the West Hall," the monks of the East Hall were saying, while the monks of the West Hall were saying, "Stop the war in the East Hall."

The Buddha would have us forget the geopolitical and socioeconomic differences and intimately recognize each other as fellow sentient humans. We all were once children who only wanted to please our parents, we all want to keep our families safe and fed, and we all want to feel secure and be free to pursue meaning in our brief lives. But the three poisons - greed, hate, and delusion - make us mistrust each other, and we retreat into territorial positions and find ourselves in conflict with each other. 

"Stop the war on the other side of the river" mean to forget the river, to drop the idea of "the other side." To stop the war in Iraq, we need to drop the distinctions separating us from each other and awaken to our common nature. Our common nature includes you and I, self and other, and everyone needs to recognize our commonality - Americans and Iranians, the Stable Genius and the current Ayatollah (whoever that may be), even the Secretary of Defense and the Supreme Commander of the Republican National Guard. 

We're all far more alike than different, but you and I can't awaken others and all we can do individually is let go of our own greed, hate, and delusion, and then with an awakened mind, practice empathy and demonstrate loving kindness to all. One person at a time, each by their own effort. 

This plan won't end the war overnight - by my estimate, it would take about a thousand years, but that's all the more reason to start right now rather than give up in despair.